Motor vehicles often comprise a large number of controls that an occupant may wish to interact with while operating the vehicle. Many of the controls may be relevant to driving the vehicle, such as indicator controls and exterior light controls. However, other controls may be provided for accessory systems of the vehicle, such as entertainment systems, navigation systems and climate control systems.
It is often desirable to provide controls for vehicle systems that are within easy reach of a driving position, in order to allow the driver to use the controls without departing from the driving position. This may lead to a large number of controls being provided within a small area of the vehicle. In some cases, in order to provide all of the controls for each of the vehicle systems, it may be necessary for a single control surface to be used to provide control inputs to more than one system of the vehicle.
Providing a large number of controls may undesirably increase the complexity of operating the vehicle and may increase clutter around the driver, which may detract from the experience of driving the vehicle.